Students: IE learning & leadership

Student: IE

INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE-RELATED LEARNING & LEADERSHIP FOR STUDENTS

UWL has established some inclusively excellent goals for student learning through General Education, College Core requirements, and even within majors and minors. But don't let that hold you back from learning even more!

Establish your own goals for Inclusive Excellence! Here are some ways to think about that:

Learn more about diverse populations	Learn to communicate & collaborate across diversity categories
Many departments offer courses on human diversity. Here are some programs that specialize in diversity: Department of Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies International Education & Engagement, including study abroad International Studies International Business	You can learn this both in and outside of courses. For example, most of the diversity student organizations don't restrict their membership to a particular identity group, and UWL also hosts many cross-cultural learning events. For coursework, Communication Studies and Global Cultures & Languages are obvious choices. But you can find opportunities to communicate across diversity categories in many courses, including through engaging with the arts and through diversity-focused courses, too.
Learn to be a leader who solves problems through multiple perspectives	Develop your research skills
Look for courses that use "authentic assignments" that address real-world problems, and courses that emphasize multiple perspectives. If you can find both in the same course, take it! Sometimes you can tell from a syllabus. Sometimes you need to ask the instructor. Here are some questions you might want to ask: are the reading assignments written by a diverse range of authors? are the course projects realistic? do they include the concerns and perspectives of diverse populations? will any of the course projects involve working with people, businesses, or organizations in the community, outside of UWL? will students have the opportunity to work collaboratively with community members? will this course challenge me to discuss controversial issues with people who are not like me? will this course teach me how to discuss controversial issues with people who don't believe as I do, without it degenerating into pain or shouting?	How does this promote the ideal of inclusive excellence, you might be asking. Here are just a few ways: Get yourself to graduate school and increase the diversity of the faculty! McNair Scholars Program Increase the problem-solving capacity of your community, society, neighborhood, or workplace through collaborative, real-world, community-based research! Some majors or minors incorporate such opportunities into one or more courses ("research methods" courses are only the most obvious possibilities). An internship might be another way to do this. Or you can do undergraduate research just because you want to! Ask the advisor assigned to you by your major. And check out the Undergraduate Research & Creativity websitefor more information and ideas.